A friend in need
by TheNightsWithSalem
Summary: Our group of mercenaries once again finds itself helping those in need. This time the fruit seller Mina, a friend of Ariela, is asking for their help. Her brother Liam has disappeared, and the only clue seems to point to the Arena and a mysterious competition that takes place at night within its walls ... The events take place shortly after "A day in Lazulis".


_**Woah! It's been a while since I last posted something new! I even forgot how to post new stories. Sorry. Anyway, I'll try to be more active from now on (and of course I'll try to finish "The Mantis" too)**_

_**A worried sister**_

"See? I told you" said Jenna. "It fits you perfectly."

"Yeah, it's not bad," Dagran admitted, as the merchant circled him.

"And thanks to these seams," she continued, "it doesn't even look like armour, so you can wear it in everyday clothes and always be protected."

Dagran looked satisfied at his reflection in the large mirror on the wall. The reinforced vest that the merchant had made him try was fine with his shirt, and it was better than his old chain-mail in every way. It only had one little flaw...

"You don't want to give me a discount, do you?"

"Oh no, my dear" Jenna replied, determined. "This is a piece of the highest quality, I can't just sell it out of friendship!"

"Sure, but so you will take back all the money you gave me before, if not more; at this point, it was better if we traded everything from the start..." Dagran observed.

After his morning workouts, he had visited the merchant to get rid of old junk that he and the others had collected during their travels and see the vest that she had told him a few days earlier... and he ended up buying a half armoury.

"Well, you didn't have to spend that money right away, but at least you know you can make great purchases with me," Jenna replied, placing a hand on his shoulder. "And who cares if you spend a little more for once? No one will be offended if you buy a little something of a higher quality for yourself. I'm more than sure that if your friends were here, they'd like you to buy it!"

He had already had a similar situation. Eventually, Dagran surrendered and took out his wallet. It had never been so full and heavy. Once he paid the merchant, the wallet came back as light as a few hours before.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you," Jenna said, counting the money. "And remember, if you need something – anything – my door is always open."

Dagran greeted her and walked out of the room with the purchases under his arm, wondering if Jenna's words meant nothing else. After all, he noticed the looks that she gave him at Mina's house... and when he was trying on the vest. They were full of interest, and not of the kind that a merchant shows for a potential client.

_I could give her a try, after all_, he thought with a half-smile, but then he remembered the last time a woman had openly shown interest in him.

He put his free hand to his stomach, almost expecting to feel his clothes soaked in blood. That time Mirania had found him in time, turning that wound into nothing more than an unpleasant memory. Jenna seemed honest, but was he willing to risk again to spend a night with a stranger?

"Hello, Dagran. Did you go to see Jenna?"

A familiar voice greeted him, distracting him from those gloomy thoughts. Dagran turned and saw Mirania a few steps away, close to the stairs to the upper floor. The Mage approached him, an intrigued expression on her face.

"Yeah," he replied, "Yurick told me that the Expansion Spell of our saddlebags was yielding because there was too much iron inside, so I sold most of the stuff we no longer use, and I also took some new equipment."

"Great!" said the Mage. "Can I take a look?"

"I assure you there is no food in here," Dagran replied in a joking tone, giving her the bundle. Mirania studied it with an impressed air.

"You bought something for everyone! It was very kind of you."

"Well, it's my job to make sure we're all well-equipped," Dagran commented earnestly. "Our conditions have already improved a lot since we arrived, so it's better for us if we show ourselves at best..."

A menacing grunt interrupted him mid-sentence. Mirania stretched her eyes, her cheeks turning red from embarrassment as she clasped her arms around her body.

"Uhm, speaking of conditions," said the Mage, trying to give herself a demeanour, "I am starving. Am I wrong, or is it already lunchtime?"

Just then, the clock behind them rang twelve chimes.

"It seems so," Dagran confirmed. He was hungry too, and he was sure that by the time Zael and the others would return to the Tavern to eat. Much better to talk about his purchases with a full stomach.

"Can you take care of the lunch while I put these things down?" he asked. Mirania barely gave him time to finish the sentence before nodding enthusiastically and slinging to the counter to talk to Kentis.

"And now even the last savings are gone..." sighed Dagran, and went up to the stairs.

Lunch turned out to be less traumatic than expected. Mirania binged as always, but this time, perhaps out of respect for Dagran and his poor wallet, she had held back a bit and ordered just four extra portions. Syrenne then contributed by offering everyone a drink with the money she won at the Arena that morning.

"These are the easiest money we've ever earned," the warrior finally commented in a strangely dim tone.

"Yeah," Zael agreed, "but you don't seem very satisfied."

"Of course I'm not! All those we face here are wimps who can barely hold a sword. We always win without even a scratch..."

"Do you think that is something to complain about?" snorted Yurick, as he handed his still half-full plate to Mirania.

"I go there to fight, so yes, it's a great reason to complain! What's the point of a challenge if there's no risk?" retorted Syrenne.

"It's more than okay for me. We already have enough problems fighting Reptides, Guraks and other beasts. I don't want to get killed only because you want to have fun!"

Dagran agreed with Yurick, both as a leader and as a warrior, but he also understood Syrenne's point of view, so he decided to intervene before the situation escalated.

"You can always fight with me or Zael" he proposed.

"Sure!" Zael nodded. "We have become even stronger since we started training at the Castle, and you wouldn't risk getting killed with us. Or I can ask Therius if he wants to fight with you..."

At that proposal, Syrenne gave him a look that could sour the milk.

"Or we can fight to the first blood like the old days" Dagran added quickly, "Mirania can heal us after all."

"Sure. Too bad that I've been seeing you fight for years" Syrenne snorted. "You can be as strong as you want, but I need something new now."

"Maybe I have the solution," Lowell said suddenly, and then he pulled out from a pocket a scroll. It looked like their passes to the Castle. The others looked at him puzzled, waiting for an explanation that was not long in coming.

"This morning, after our victory, a guy approached me – one of the workers who rotate the Arena scenarios – and gave me this pass. They grant it only to the strongest fighters and allows us to participate in a more heated competition that takes place in the basement of the Arena... and the next meeting is just tonight! If you are looking for something new and more inspiring, then this should be fine with you," the Mage concluded, waving the scroll triumphantly. The warrior looked at him in awe.

"You idiot!" she blurted. "Why didn't you say so right away? Come here!"

Syrenne jumped on Lowell and tried to snatch the scroll from his hand. Their companions and other Tavern customers, now accustomed to their scuffles, ignored them... until they began to fight on the floor. Dagran and Zael then intervened, and after getting both an elbow in the face, they managed to get them back to sit at the table. The Mage and the warrior apologized, and Dagran quickly dismissed the whole affair. That night-time competition thing had intrigued him a lot.

_I doubt it could be harder than the Tower Trial, but it could still be a good workout, _he thought._ And then, if we win in this competition too, our earnings would increase even more!_

"This seems suspicious to me," Yurick said suddenly, interrupting his reasoning. "We go to the Arena most days now and I've never heard anyone talk about such a competition."

It was a fair remark, but Dagran for once wanted to be optimistic.

"I understand your concern," he said, "but it could be just a peculiarity of Lazulis. We have already seen that not all Arenas of the Empire have the same rules..."

"Yeah, Yurick, stop being a buzzkill!" squirted Syrenne, already excited about the idea of being able to put her hands up.

"... Moreover," Dagran calmly resumed, "if it were a shady thing, it would still be good for us to check. It wouldn't be the first time we got involved in strange things and ended up solving more problems than we knew."

The young Mage turned to Zael and Mirania in search of support, but the warrior agreed with Dagran, and the Mage was too busy finishing the leftovers to pay attention to the speech. When he realized that he was in the minority, Yurick finally gave up and blurted out:

"All right, do what you want! But don't expect me to join in: I will come with you, but only to watch and to be sure that everything will be alright."

"Excellent, so you can avenge us if we get defeated!" replied Lowell in a cheerful tone, and finished his beer.

"Sure! Knowing that you're watching over us from the stands will make me feel safe!" joked Syrenne.

Yurick didn't take it well, and it took Zael and Dagran's joint efforts to keep him good. At that point, Mirania stacked the last dish she had just cleaned with the others and intervened for the first time in the speech.

"I guess we're going to this special competition tonight," she said. In the end, the Mage had listened to them, after all. "It can be a good opportunity to try out the new equipment Dagran has bought for us."

Only then Dagran remembered the swords and armours he had left upstairs. Now his companions were all looking at him.

"Equipment?" intriguingly asked Zael. Dagran shrugged.

"Well, a few days ago Jenna told me that she had articles that we might be interested in, so I went to her and sold some..."

He suddenly broke off, his gaze fixed on the entrance of the Tavern.

Amid the comings and goings of customers, there was a familiar blonde girl who looked around with a worried face. Zael noticed her too and recognized her instantly.

"Wait, isn't that Mina?"

Yes, it was her, and the two mercenaries weren't the only ones who saw her. Soon after, Ariela left the counter and ran to meet her friend. The two talked for a while, then Ariela looked around with a serious air until she saw the two mercenaries.

_There's something wrong, _Dagran thought as he saw the two approaching to their table. He and Zael exchanged glances and rose to welcome them.

"Ariela, Mina, is there any problem?" asked Zael when the girls reached them.

"Well, it's her brother," Ariela replied, turning to her friend. "He hasn't come home in days."

The mercenaries shut up and listened attentively.

"This is not the first time Liam stayed away for work," Mina explained, "but he's never been out that long without warning me in any way. At first, I tried not to worry, then down at the port, I heard that some of his friends had disappeared... I should have called the guards right away, but..."

"... but you thought you'd turn to us first" Dagran concluded for her.

Mina nodded. "I know that you are in the service of the Count and that you have more serious matters to deal with, but please help me! I took all the money I had, but if it's not enough I can try to..."

"No way!" Zael interrupted, "You don't need to pay us. We came here to become Knights and to help those in need, as is right to do."

_How typical, _Dagran smiled at himself, though he agreed with Zael.

"And here is our good, old Zael," Lowell commented in a theatrical tone, "always ready to help the damsels in distress like the gallant heroes of fairy tales! At this rate, you will steal me all the girls, but at least I know for a fact that my influence has done you good."

Dagran and the others chuckled at those words, and even Yurick let slip the hint of a smile, while Zael, all red in the face, asked Mina if she noticed anything out of the ordinary before Liam disappeared. The girl thought about it for a while before answering in a hesitant tone.

"Maybe it doesn't mean anything, but... well, my brother likes to watch Arena fighters and often participates in afternoon's one-on-one matches. The last time he went, he told me a man approached him. They talked for a while, then that man gave him a scroll before he walked away. If I'm not mistaken there was only a drawing on it, a fist inside a cage or something..."

At those words Lowell straightened up in his chair, his face very serious.

"Like this one?" he asked, giving Mina the scroll he had shown to the others before. The girl looked out.

"Yes, it's the same!"

A tense silence fell on the group, then Yurick turned to Dagran.

"What did you say about getting involved in strange things and so on?"

"Maybe it's just a coincidence," Lowell said as he put the scroll back in his pocket, "but at least we have a starting point for research."

Mina looked at them hopefully.

"Does that mean you're going to help me?"

Dagran nodded, followed soon after by the others.

"Yes, we will look for your brother," he said.

_... And I think we're going to start at the Arena._


End file.
